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My favorite are the people who abandon their cars – cause walking will be a great idea. This happened in GA a couple years ago – literally intersections were blocked with cars that people just left and came back the next day for. Sigh.

Sometimes you run out of gas or get stuck. That nearly happened to me during the 2011 commuteageddon. I wasn’t expecting my normally 20-minute commute to take 8 hours, so I left work with only half a tank of gas (now I know better).

I wouldn’t leave my car unless the only other option was to sit there and slowly freeze to death in it, and my car is old and cheap and practically worthless. I doubt many people are leaving their beloved cars to hike down a slippery highway to god knows where with freezing cold wind whipping at them, unless there was no other choice.

To be fair, 6 inches of snow is a piece of cake compared to an inch of an icy/snow mix. Icy roads are difficult – but people also are ridiculous when driving in it. It’s really not terribly difficult – don’t drive aggressively and use your brakes as little as possible.

1. No snow tires on cars here
2. I guarantee the city of Buffalo probably has a larger snow removal crew, trucks, and pounds of sand/salt than the major DC metro county/District governments combined. We just don’t spend as much to prepare for this.
3. Lots of transplants here from other places who have zero experience driving in snow.

Agree on point #1. We’d do a lot better with snow tires.
Something that does help anchor the back end of cars so they don’t spin out is putting a couple heavy bags of salt or sand in your truck. Might be a good idea for Monday morning commuters…

Good points, all. I would just add that because of the sheer volume of traffic in and around DC, any little hiccup or wrinkle — be it weather related or something else — causes a huge impact. If everyone begins driving 10 mph slower when the first flakes hit, that causes back ups. And then the accidents and closed roads start, and everything grinds to a halt. It is a quick downward spiral from there.

anonymous — I’m hoping people aren’t commuting, but I’m sure some people are going to have to get places for one reason or another (for example, people that work shifts at hospitals, federal gov. building security, White House employees, etc.) I just hope that most of these people live close enough to work that they don’t have to drive in/out.

Coming from Chicago, it’s not the snow that was the problem last night, it was the untreated ice. Didn’t see a single plow or salt truck last night whereas in Chicago they treat early and often. And don’t get me started on the drivers tailgating.

It may not be considered a lot of snow, but I’m sure everywhere else the roads are pre-treated. I bet even the most seasoned midwest drivers wouldn’t be able to handle driving on a straight up block of ice.

It would be interesting if a former northern resident could weigh in on whether the roads were difficult to drive last night. It sounded like they were, even if you’re more accustomed to wintery weather.

Challenging but not awful with snow tires. Wouldn’t have wanted to do much with all-seasons. Lots of people here are idiots and leave their summers on–those people were probably responsible for lots of the mess last night. (I’m from Detroit originally.)

“Lots of people here are idiots and leave their summers on” — Snow tires are not customary in D.C., presumably because we don’t usually get snow very often, and when we do, we don’t get very much of it.

My colleague was on a commuter bus on 66 and the driver panicked and refused to drive. They finally got out and flagged down another bus which picked them up later – 6 hours to get from DC to Mananas – all because a bus driver freaked on the freeway.

I gave up on driving home (car2go) when Wisconsin became a parking lot and walked home. There were numerous cars stuck on the ice. It was funny to see them this morning on my bike in – and glad that MPD was nice and no one got tickets as of 8am.